


Different

by orphan_account



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: AU sort of?, Barry runs back in time so he doesn't remember some shit, Confusion, Fluff, I'm Bad At Tagging, Light Angst, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Olivarry, Read it though?, Spoilers through 2x17 of Flash, Spoilers through 4x08 for Arrow, flarrow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 21:55:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7286146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry knew when he came back things would be different. He just hadn’t expected them to be quite this different.  </p>
<p>OR: After Barry runs back in time there are some unexpected changes in his personal life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Different

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This is a bug that’s been stuck in my head since flash 2x17 when Barry runs back in time. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Side Note: This is my first fanfic EVER. I’ve been in the Olivarry fandom for a while now (around 6 months) but I haven’t ever written before. Constructive criticism is always appreciated, but please, no flames! 
> 
> No plagiarism is intended. I don’t own Flash or Arrow or any of these characters. I just have my plot bunny.

 

Honestly, Barry hoped that Hartley was it.

He supposed that was silly. After all, the last time he ran back in time he opened an uncontrollable wormhole that killed one of his closest friends’ husband and opened a series of other wormholes’ that have put his entire world in unspeakably horrible danger. By comparison, _j_ _ ust _ having a former enemy turned into an ally was far too tame, and too positive, to be all the change that this timeline has suffered.

But really, what was next? Was Tony Woodward going to walk in with bags of Big Belly Burger?

Apparently not. A trip to Team Flash’s morgue confirmed that. (What? It was normal - or, well, no, but - okay, can he really be blamed here? It was totally plausible.)

Regardless, the last few days had been pretty average. That is, average for a team of superheroes. Earth 2 Wells was gone, in search of Jessie, and Barry had started working on the speed translations with Cisco. They seemed pretty close to cracking the code. Gideon had been a huge help, even if it was still a little weird and more than a little tempting knowing she could see the future.

So he started to feel optimistic. Maybe nothing too bad had changed due to his little trip through the space time continuum. Wait, did this mean he was getting better at time travel? Maybe he should run through some tests, start small, just traveling back in time a few seconds, then minutes. Eventually he’d work his way up to a day, and-

“Hey Barry, Loverboy’s here!” Cisco called out delightedly as he walked into the lab with his steaming hot cup of Jitter’s.

“Loverboy?” Barry asked, slightly confused. What, or rather, who, was Cisco talking about? Was it a new meta? No, it couldn’t be, Cisco sounded far too cheerful for that. Wait, that wasn’t Hartley’s nickname, was it? Were Hartley and Cisco dating? That was cool and all, he just wasn’t expecting it. How did him going back in time to gain speed correlate to-

“Okay, fine, I’ll work up a better nickname.” Cisco said. “Seriously though, “Arrow,” Just doesn’t fully suit him anymore, right? Maybe...Oh, I’ve got it! Cupid! Perfect, right? Cause-”

“Cisco, be quiet. Please.” Oliver’s gravelly voice rang through the lab as he too, walked in with Jitter’s. Only, he had two cups in his hand, not one. 

“Oliver!” Barry squeaked out in surprise. “We weren’t expecting you. Come in, I mean, wait, no, you’re, um, you’re already inside, just, uh, why are you here?” God he was an idiot. But, well, it wasn’t his fault that Oliver was just so...  _ Oliver,  _ and, well….

Did he mention that he was an idiot?

“What, I can’t come and surprise you with a cup of coffee?” Oliver asked “I got you the Flash.” He said with a wink as he handed him the Jitter’s drink named after Barry’s persona. Is that why he had two cups? Why would  _ Oliver-  _

Maybe he was overthinking this. Coffee. That was a normal thing to give to a friend. He got Caitlin coffee all the time.

“Yeah, of course.” Barry said, trying to recover smoothly. “Just, uh, why are you in Central? Is there a new case Team Arrow’s working on?” Because that was a plausible reason for Ollie to come to Central. He meant, for  _ Oliver,  _ to come to Central.

Truly, a whole new  _ brand _ of idiot.

“Not really,” Oliver said. “I mean, there’s some stuff in Starling, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. I mostly just came to surprise you.” 

“Surprise me.” Barry echoed. Oliver nodded. “With a cup of coffee.” he said, just to clarify, as if someone coming 600 miles to get a person coffee was normal.

“Well, the coffee is part of the surprising, yes. I was also kind of thinking dinner, though. Tonight.” Oliver said, as if this was a totally normal or regular thing. At Barry’s confused glance (or, he supposed, confused gaping,) The vigilante added, also confusedly.“Or are you and Cisco too busy today?” 

“Nah, man, you guys are cool. Barry and I can probably finish up before tonight.” Cisco said. Oliver stared pointedly at the young scientist until Cisco said, “And with that, I’m suddenly in the mood for another cup of coffee! See you in ten, Barry?” Barry nodded dimly.

As soon as Cisco was gone however, Oliver rounded on him, “Okay, what’s the matter with you?” He asked candidly. What was the matter with  _ him?  _ What about Oliver? First Cisco calling him loverboy, followed by  _ cupid.  _ Then the cup of coffee, then the dinner invite, and now this? This, what-therapy session? What was going on? It was almost like they were...

No, that wasn’t possible. He thought Hartley and Cisco were far fetched, there was no way that him going back in time had led to  _ this.  _

“Is this because you went back in time? When you, or well past you met future you, or, now, present you, past you had been pretty shaken, but future-present you had seemed okay. Now though, you’re acting pretty weird. Do you just want to come home? I’m sure Cisco wouldn’t mind. Whatever you guys are researching could probably wait a day, right?” Oliver asked, concern now laced through his normally tough tone.  Barry’s mind was scrambling. There had been so many things weird with what Oliver just said, but one in particular stood out to him.  _ Come  _ home? He could imagine Oliver telling him to  _ go  _ home, the speedster would maybe even take him up on that. But coming home implied that there was a mutual home to come to. That-

He should just ask Oliver, right? Right.

“Come home?” Barry asked, failing miserably at his attempt to look Oliver in the eye.

“Yes, come home. To our house. You seem like you could use a day off, and you’re working on gaining more speed with those equations, right? I know you want to beat Zoom, but you aren’t going to be able to with your head not in the ga-”

“ _Our_ house?” Barry asked incredulously. No, no, _no._ There was no way. Oliver was with Felicity, he was happy! He had been wrong, guys like him _got the girl._ Even if guys like Barry couldn’t get the guy. He had finally started pushing the hooded vigilante out of his head, and his heart, but now...He supposed he was just going to have to ask. “This is going to sound absolutely crazy, but are-are we like, a thing?” Wow Barry, really mature way of phrasing that.

“Yes?” Oliver now looked  _ very  _ confused, “I mean, I thought that was implied when we started dating 6 months ago. Are you sure you’re okay? Did you hit your head or something?” Oliver asked.

“No! No, I didn’t hit my head, and no, I am  _ not  _ okay, this, this  _ thing,  _ it wasn’t a thing in my timeline. I mean, our timeline, the original one. You’re with Felicity. You guys are….” Barry trailed off. The speedster had only considered outlier issues, like the Reverse Flash still being out there, or the Trickster escaping. He had never even  _ considered  _ that he would have a whole relationship that he didn’t remember, a whole different life to live in. He hadn’t considered that he would be tearing apart other people’s world’s in addition to his own. 

“What do you mean, Barry?” Oliver asked gently as he guided them to the hospital bed in the lab. “We’re not a thing. Does that mean we’re not…” Oliver swallowed, his gaze hardening as his body stiffened and he distanced himself slightly, “Not together?” His voice was tighter now, less open, as if he was attempting to reconstruct walls that had already been torn down. 

“No. I mean, maybe in this universe we were, but not in my world.” The speedster replied, trying to keep his voice from shaking. Oliver looked so hurt, as if for once he just couldn’t keep his stoic mask on. It killed Barry to know he was hurting the vigilante like that, but he couldn’t keep Oliver from happiness, and he was happy with Felicity. Just because Barry wanted something more didn’t mean that he could let Oliver be tricked into a relationship that wasn’t supposed to exist.

 

"But in your universe, we still know each other," Oliver said, now clearly attempting to figure things out from a logical standpoint. Barry nodded. "How well do we know each other?" Oliver asked. Barry paused.

"I know that you were the first person I went to when I discovered my powers," Barry said, unsure of why he was bringing it up, but feeling that it was important. "I know you nearly strangled me when we first met. I know I nearly killed you because of a meta-human named after the rainbow. I know you shot me in the back with an arrow, and then told me I could talk to you about anything. I know I was the first person you told about William, and we hugged afterwards." Barry kept rambling, and for once he found he didn't really want to stop.

"I know that you lead a life like something out of a mafia movie, and that you are actually part of the Russian Mafia. I know that sometimes, when I’m just done with Central City and Caitlin and Cisco I’ll run over to Starling and help you and Dig. I know that sometimes you don’t feel like there’s any humanity left in you, that to be the Green Arrow you can’t be Oliver Queen, and I know that that’s bullshit. I know that you’re on Iris’s three list, and maybe the reason I was so upset when I found out was because you’re kinda on mine too.” Barry stops then, and he’s suddenly very grateful he’s sitting down. He’s been leaning forward during his speech and Oliver’s lips are now dangerously close to his own.

"Sorry," Barry says as he tries to back away, " Sorry, that  was, I was-" He's cut short as Oliver presses his lips to Barry's in an all-consuming kiss. Barry reacts almost instinctively, closing his eyes in the sensation as his hands find their way up to the vigilante’s hair. He can feel his heart jumping out of his chest as Oliver brings his own hands to Barry’s hips, gripping them as he slips his tongue into the speedster’s open mouth. Barry moans, almost vibrating as he’s immersed in  _ Oliver,  _ and he’s running out of breath but he doesn’t want to stop, he just wants to drown in the sweet torture that is Oliver Queen.

And yeah, they still have a lot to talk about, but Barry thinks that this is one side effect of time travel that he won’t want to change. 

 


End file.
